Black & Blue is a Belgian-style golden ale fermented with blackberries and blueberries. Because we dose Black & Blue with real berries -- rather than artificial flavoring -- the fruit comes through in the flavor, not just the aroma.

The pureed berries are added as the beer leaves the brewhouse. In fermentation, the yeast -- the same one we use in Red & White and Pangaea -- feeds on sugars from the barley and the berries, giving Black & Blue a unique complexity and a high ABV.

Broke out a bottle with bottled on date of 2010. Poured into a large tulip glass.

Pours a somewhat cloudy amber with orange highlights. Small lacing on the top with a little lacing. Can see some sediment floating around but that's expected give the bottled on date.

Smells very pleasing. Just like a fruity wine would produce nice aromatics, this one delivers in the same vein. I get the berries but a good dose of orange & coriander. Also some jelly/jam and strawberries. Some alcohol notes in the nose, but well under control.

T: A heavy dose of orange, berry fruit, some lemon, and a red wine like presence. It's a little hard to straight pick out the black & blue berries as neither completely dominate the flavor (or aroma) profile. Has some nice hop bitterness at the tail end, but hop character is unnoticeable.

M: Feels about medium. It has a really nice thirst quenching quality to it. Would be great on a hot summer day.

O: This one is really hard to nail down as it takes on the wine -esque attributes while still maintaining the craft beer style. Almost seems like a red-wine sangria. Seriously.

I'm really impressed with what this is. This one blows away barriers as to what to expect of craft beer. I know this has been out there for some time and I'm pretty sure I've tried it before as I've had most DFH offerings being in Philly. Not sure if the age has anything to do with it, but I really am enjoying this. Wow! A great beer.

Appearance: Amber orange color with about 2 fingers of an off white head. Lots of visible carbonation streaming throughout.

Smell: Berries, and lots of them. Blueberry, raspberry, strawberry jam with some booze present as well. The berry aromas all seem natural as opposed to artificial. There's a hint of breadiness in the aroma, but other than that I'm not really picking up anything from the base beer.

Taste: Lightly sweet with a slight tartness upfront. Lots of red berry jam flavors with raspberry being the most prominent. Some breadiness and grain come through in the middle, as well as some spicy yeast. Blueberry is most prominent in the finish, with both blueberry flesh and skin being noticeable.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Carbonation wasn't as intense as I was expecting given the appearance (which is a good thing). As for drinkability, this goes down extremely smooth with the alcohol being masked very well (FWIW, this bottle has about a year of age on it)

Overall: This is one big ass fruit beer, and it's a good one. Dangerously drinkable and not as sweet as you would expect a 10% DFH fruit beer to be. I'm looking forward to trying a bottle of the 2013 batch when it's released.